M&M's German has stepped up its presence in Germany with the acquisition of 90.47- per cent stake in Germany's Schoneweiss & Co. GmbH, a leading forgings sector company. The acquisition was carried out by its Mauritius-based subsidiary Mahindra Forgings Global Ltd.

Schoneweiss, a 140-year family-owned company, is one of the top five global five axle beam manufacturers specialises in suspension, power train and engine parts and is a supplier to DaimierChrysler Group, MAN, Scania and Volkswagen.

The company has forging capacity of 50,000 tpa and turnover of €90 million Schoneweiss has three manufacturing plants in Hagen and Gevelsberg, Germany with a total manpower of 550 people.

"This acquisition creates for us a strong European base as it is fully harmonious with our existing presence in Germany through Jaco AG," said Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director, M&M. "We are now well on the path to capitalise on and consolidate our position towards becoming a globally significant player in the forgings business. Also by expanding Mahindra''s ''design to delivery'' bandwidth in the components space, Schoneweiss would be a huge step in the Mahindra''s evolution as the first fully integrated auto component provider from India."

Harald Korte and Andreas Voss, members of two of the founding families and driving force behind Schoneweiss will continue as shareholders of Schoneweiss and continue to be in its Advisory Board and work with the Company as Managing Director respectively. Their expertise and strong customer and supplier relationships will help the Company at higher growth trajectory.

Kotak Investment Banking, Mumbai and M&A International GmbH, Kronberg, Germany advised the Company while InterFinanz, Dusseldorf acted as consultants for the Schoneweiss Group.